Next time you entertain, try your cocktail frankfurters, lil’ smokies or famous meatballs in a honey-bourbon barbecue sauce easily made from scratch!

I am rather good at making sauces. I suppose it stems from my days working as a condiment girl and the manager often didn’t order his dressings or sauces. SO what to do but make them from scratch?
I do think there may be a *bit* more to it than that, but sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. And for many years I really was content to buy stuff in the bottle. Then I found the need to get rid of most if not all of the corn syrup or sugar.
This recipe may seem in fact, to have a LOT of ingredients. But I bet if you check that bottle of sauce on the shelf, it has just as many and a few extra that you can’t even pronounce!)
It really is easy to put together though and you can have it and the franks done in about 35 minutes.
A word of warning though- once you start making your own sauce, you may in fact, become a monster (like I have) and regardless how much you enjoy doing it, the people who eat your sauces are NOT going to let you turn heel and go back to the stuff off the shelf.
But really, who would want to do that?

Cocktail Frankfurters in Honey Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients for Honey-Bourbon Barbecue Sauce:

1 tbsp. butter

8 ounces tomato sauce

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons hickory flavored liquid smoke

1-1.5 teaspoons Lousiana hot sauce

2 tablespoons Kentucky bourbon

1 1/2 teaspoons molasses

3-4 tablespoons honey

Method:

Whisk ingredients for the sauce together in a saucepan and simmer for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is as thick as you like it.

To make the weenies, heat a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and add franks, smokies or meatballs. Stir and cook for a few minutes (this lets the franks plump up).

Favorite Links

Always a place at my table…

3,364,298 hungry people were here

FTC Disclosure: Palatable Pastime is written, edited and owned by Sue Lau. Please note that this post may contain affiliate links and I may be paid a commission if clicked. These small commissions help keep Palatable Pastime running and contributes to keeping the lights on and the electric bill paid. Thank you for your continued support!

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.